Additive manufacturing may be used to quickly and efficiently manufacture complex three-dimensional components layer-by-layer. Such additive manufacturing may be accomplished using polymers, alloys, powders, wires, or similar feed stock materials that transition from a liquid or granular state to a cured, solid component.
Polymer-based additive manufacturing is presently accomplished by several technologies that rely on feeding polymer materials through a nozzle that is precisely located over a preheated polymer substrate. Parts are manufactured by the deposition of new layers of materials above the previously deposited layers. Unlike rapid prototyping processes, additive manufacturing is intended to produce a functional component constructed with materials that have strength and properties relevant to engineering applications. On the contrary, rapid prototyping processes typically produce exemplary models that are not production ready.
Large scale polymer extrusion based additive manufacturing of mechanically robust components requires localized heating and large thermal gradients that cause all conventional materials designed for 3D printing to fail due to large macroscopic distortions. The problem is compounded by low adhesion between deposition layers resulting in delamination of adjacent layers and low overall z-strength. The complexity, cost and flexibility of large scale additive manufacturing is greatly reduced by building components out of the oven, therefore there is a strong motivation to make this transition. State-of-the-art as well as low-cost polymer materials for additive manufacturing are not fully compatible with out of the oven printing. Thus, there is a continuing need for improved additive manufacturing materials and methods.